ELA8+Urban+Settings

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=Topic= Students will closely examine how the setting, directly and indirectly, affects a story's elements. Students will work on citing textual evidence that reveals the setting and analyzing the effect of the setting on individuals and events. Students will write an urban narrative, as well as an informative/explanatory essay.
 * Urban Settings in Informational Texts **

=Common Core Standards= Students will:
 * RI.8.1** Cite textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
 * RI.8.6** Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
 * W.8.3** Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well structured event sequences.
 * SL.8.1** Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.
 * SL.8.1a** Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.
 * SL.8.1b** Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.
 * L.8.4** Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
 * L.8.4a** Use context (overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
 * L.8.4b** Use common, grade appropriate Greek of Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.

=Suggested Student Objectives= //** SWBAT: **//
 * Focus on the effect of settings on story characters, plots, and themes, in urban America;
 * Analyze informational texts pertaining to urban settings;
 * Compare and contrast story characters, plots, themes, and settings from works about urban America;
 * Distinguish between explicit and implicit ways of describing the effect of setting on characters, plot, and themes analyze the ways in which the structure of a work effects how the setting is conveyed;
 * Analyze different outcomes of the same event, write poetry (concrete or haiku), and perform it for classmates;
 * Compare elements of the musical //Chicago// to other poetry and prose about the city of Chicago;
 * Define related words and identify their parts of speech (urban, urbanization, suburban, city, citify, metropolitan, metropolis).

=Terminology/ Academic Vocabulary=
 * **Academic Vocabulary** || **Text Based Vocabulary** || **ELA Vocabulary** ||
 * convey ||  distinctive  ||  transition  ||
 * credible source ||  civilized  ||  perspective  ||
 * coherent ||  urban  ||  persuasive  ||
 * irony ||  urbanization  ||  setting  ||
 * Impact of setting upon characters ||  suburban  ||  theme  ||
 * text structure ||  rural  ||  author’s purpose  ||
 * Sarcasm ||  city  ||  antagonist  ||
 * connotation ||  citified  ||  protagonist  ||
 * Implicit and explicit textual evidence ||  metropolitan  ||  essay  ||
 * arguments ||  metropolis  ||  clincher  ||
 * claims ||  museum  ||  conflict (internal, external)  ||
 * judgment ||  culture  ||  point of view  ||
 * || district  ||  narrator  ||
 * || revolution  ||  characterization  ||
 * || uprising  ||  symbolism  ||
 * || barbaric  ||  literal and figurative language  ||
 * ||  ||  capitalization  ||
 * ||  ||  Commas  ||
 * ||  ||  elements of essay  ||
 * ||  ||  RAFT  ||
 * ||  ||  persuasive thesis  ||
 * ||  ||  persuasive writing  ||

=Suggested Additional Readings= The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler (R) The Hunger Games (H)
 * Required Novels**

Choose one //Monster// by Walter Dean Myers //Bad Boy// by Walter Dean Myers

"The Umbrella Man" by Roald Dahl "Thank you, Mam" by Langston Hughes "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" by Walter Dean Myers "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe "Skyscraper" by Carl Sandburg "Skyscraper" by Rachel Field "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg "O Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman
 * Short Stories / Poems**

//Skyscraper// Lynn Curlee //Let's Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage// Lisa Beamer //Newsweek//: "Path of a Pandemic" //United States Department of Health and Human Services//: "The Great Pandemic" //The New York Times//: "The Forever War of the Mind" //The United States Department of Veteran Affairs//: "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" [|www.FamilyOfaVet.com]: "Daddy's Home" //World Health Organization//: "What's in a Name?" //Chicago Tribune//: "Swine Flu: Virus Invasion Sets off Battle Inside Body" "Ring Around the Rosy" "London Bridges" from //Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush// by Beverly Gherman from //Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist// by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan from //Mary Cassatt: Portrait of an American Impressionist// by Tom Streissguth from //Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art// by Eric Carle, Mitsumasa Anno, and Quentin Blake from //Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars// by Brad Bucks and Joan Holub from //Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors// by Jane O'Connor and Keesia Johnson from //Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules// by True Kelley from //The Lives of Artists// by Giorgio Vasari (excerpt on Michaelangelo or Leonardo) from //Maya Angelou// by L. Patricia Kite from //Incredible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women// by Cornelia Meigs from //Mark Twain// by Susan Bivin Aller from //Bram Stoker: The Man Who Wrote Dracula// by Steven Otfinoski
 * Nonfiction / Informational** **Texts**

Edward Hopper "Nighthawks" Piet Mondrian "Broadway Boogie Woogie" Joseph Stella "Bridge" Jean Michel Basquiat "Untitled" Pablo Picasso "Untitled" Anish Kapoor "Cloud Gate" Edward H. Bennett and Marcel F. Loyau "Buckingham Fountain" Alan Jackson "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning"
 * Art and Media**

varied sentence structure NYS ELA based short answer reponses using RAFT focusing on explicit and implicit textual evidence __Informational/Explanatory Writing__- students will research the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its holdings. Students will create an informational brochure highlighting artists and their works.
 * Writing**


 * Suggested Writing Assignments**

1. Choose one of the following quotes. Write a response detailing the specific event in the story that the quote foreshadowed. How does the author’s use of language help the reader to spot the clues?


 * "The dark sky, filled with angry swirling clouds, reflected Greg Ridley’s mood." (p5)
 * “He reached the house just as another flash of lightening changed the night to day for an instant, then returned the graffiti-scarred building to the grim shadows. (p.6)
 * He reached the house just as another flash of lightening changed the night to day for an instant, then returned to the graffiti – scarred building to the grim shadows.(p6)
 * “I used to have a knotty-headed boy just like you.” (p9)
 * “If you know your pappy did something, you know you can do something too.” (p12)

2. Read each of the following quotes and chose one. Write a response that details what it tells us about the character? How does the author manage to convey the character trait through his writing?


 * “Lemon Brown,” the old man said, pulling back his shoulders as he did so, “they used to call me Sweet Lemon Brown.” (p.9)
 * **“**We heard you talking about your treasure,” the voice was slurred. (p.10)
 * “You told me your name was orange or lemon or something like that.” (p.9)
 * “His father had been a postal worker for all of Greg’s life, and was proud of it, often telling Greg how hard he had worked to pass the test.”

subject, predicate, subject/verb agreement, capitalization, commas
 * Grammar**

=Resource Links= “Chicago” Carl Sandburg

“Nighthawks”

Hopper's "Nighthawks"

“Broadway Boogie Woogie” Piet Mondrian

“The Bridge” Joseph Stella

“Untitled” Pablo Picasso

“Cloud Gate” Anish Kapoor

"Cloud Gate"

“Buckingham Fountain” Edward Bennett and Marcel Loyau

"Buckingham Fountain"

“Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” Alan Jackson (YouTube Video)

"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" (Lyrics)

=Activities= Students explore characters and plots, but this unit takes a unique approach to examining how setting, directly or indirectly, affects these story elements. Students work on citing textual evidence that reveals the setting, analyzing the effect of the setting on individuals and events, and writing their own urban narratives. This unit ends with an informative/explanatory essay in response to the essential question: "What does the urban setting contribute to these stories?"

".

=Assessments= __**QUARTERLY EXAM:**__ Part I- NYS ELA8 **Reading Comprehension** section Part II- NYS ELA **short answer responses** pertaining to informational texts Other assessments:
 * Major Assessments include:**
 * Informational museum brochure
 * An essay in response to the essential question ( impact of setting on charcters)
 * Rewrite a section of the text from the perspective of one of the characters placed in a different setting.
 * An exam based on the novel

=**BACK to ELA 8**=